The University of Hawaii says a team of students from Manoa successfully tested a prototype automated hydroponic growing system in a habitat designed to sustain life on the moon and Mars.

The four students who designed and developed Box Farm were at the University of North Dakota last month to test their system in the NASA-funded Inflatable Lunar- Mars Habitat. Sean Agpaoa, Gabor Paczolay, James Thesken and Preston Tran are UH-Manoa senior mechanical engineering students.

Their research focused on robotics, image processing, sensor systems, botany, interplanetary communication and autonomy.

The goal of Box Farm is to cut down on the time researchers spend tending to plants in space, which can take up to 60% of a crew’s time. The system can also be used to advance autonomous greenhouse cultivation of food on Earth.

The testing demonstrated the tasks Box Farm can do within the NASA habitat and can be scaled up to care for hundreds of plants.

The Box Farm team won first place at the UH-Manoa College of Engineering Francis J. Rhodes Montgomery innovation competition in April. The team members say they are starting a company to commercialize agricultural technologies.